Paul’s change of travel plans – 2nd Corinthians 1:12-22

Thank you for clicking on our page for the Pauline epistle which is called 2nd Corinthians, the letter is authored by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. This is a great letter of exhortation and gives many doctrines that we still use in both church structure today. For other bible studies in 2nd Corinthians please click here and for other epistles please see our main epistle page.

2nd Corinthians 1:12 (ESV) For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. 15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee

When I set this blog up my intention was to explore the epistles and do the occasional bible study based on what I had studied and learned, what you are reading below is notes I have made. I have to confess that this bible study is basic in its content and is not prepared by a pastor and I have to admit I have no theological training; my hope in prayer is that someone will be blessed by the notes below.

Let’s start in verse twelve of the first chapter of Second Corinthians.

V12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

Paul uses words like “testimony of our conscience” and it seems like he is defending himself from accusations that have been made against him. Paul states his integrity and gives an account of himself that states that he has acted in a manner that was simple and everything he did was with godly sincerity and by the grace of God and was for their benefit. As we read here in this article Paul has had to change plans and not come to them as quickly as he had stated previously and perhaps this perturbed or angered them and he has had to come up with a defense for why it was the will of God to not be there when they desired. He did state at the end of First Corinthians the following…

1st Corinthians 16:5 (ESV) I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

It is likely that it was these travel plans that he had to reconsider on. We have to realize the Corinthian culture of carnality and that they were used to people not being honest and in the culture that they lived in they did not have a good reputation and people were unreliable so they assumed that Paul was just like that, Paul had to contend that he wasn’t.

V13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

Paul states that there was no hidden agenda, he wrote in terms that the everyday guy would understand and that is needed in the church, too often we like to tie ourselves up with our “holy words” and if I do that then please know that I do not mean to, my heart is to make the gospel accessible to everyone and that is also why I wrote the “Christianese” page on the blog. There was no double meanings, there was no “saying this but meaning that” Paul was a plain talker and said what he meant and meant what he said. I love folks like that because they are refreshing as long as they refine it and say such things in love.

V15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.

Paul shows his heart to still come to them; his desire is still to serve them as the Lord leads. He had originally planned to go there twice visiting Macedonia in the interim and allow them to be the sending church for him to go to Judea as he wanted to give them a second blessing and we see why in Second Corinthians chapter 2:1-4 and again in chapters 5 and 7 why it was difficult.

17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.

Paul goes through the deliberations that caused him to choose to go or choose to not go, Paul states clearly that he does not make his plans according to the flesh and does not interchange yes and no, he wasn’t doing it lightly and was planning according to where God was sending him. You can be assured that if he planned in the flesh then he would be likely to only choose the easy places to go to, the places to where he would be well received, Paul never did that and did not shirk from the “hard work” or persecution of the gospel. Paul writes this letter to quell their disappointment and explain why he took the actions he did.

Paul uses an absolute standard, he invokes the name of God, not in a blasphemous way or a way that would cause criticism but he advises that as God is faithful so was his word. That as Jesus follower he was speaking the truth and that he was not trying to schmooze them or be deceitful. Paul had counted himself alongside Christ in his integrity because he knew that he was a man of integrity. He was looking for the Corinthian church to not just trust the messenger but trust the message, that Paul was a man who had a life changing experience on the road to Damascus and wanted them to consider what he said to be trustworthy. Would you trust the words from a preacher you didn’t trust?

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee

Jesus was the answer to all the promises of God! Jesus was the Yes in the promises of God, what rich theology in ten short words. Jesus and the Father were on one mission and were unified in purpose and that is why we are assured that God the father would always affirm what the Son says. Paul confirms his calling is from God, commissioned by God, established in Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit.

We are listed as anointed and sealed and here is what that means below…

Anointed – a preparing, a commissioning, an empowering for service and we all have a role to play in the kingdom of God, we won’t all be in the pulpits but we all have a dynamic role to play in helping people find Jesus. In Old Testament times the anointed ones were kings, prophets, priests and we share that same commission.

Sealed – We are identified with Christ and even when we take the name Christian we are calling ourselves ones who are following Christ.

Guaranteed – We have been given the Holy Spirit as a down payment or guarantee for the fullness of what God can do. God is investing in us on a daily basis, are we doing what we can to grow as Christians?

As Christians it is okay to be disappointed (even at holy things like the Corinthians are here) but we have to give our leaders the benefit of the doubt and show grace and I pray that if I am in the situation that the Corinthian church was in I would show the Paul in my life more grace than they showed him. I probably have been in this situation and I probably have blown it in the past. I pray I do better next time should the Lord be willing.

Lord willing, in our next article in Second Corinthians we will look at chapter one verse twenty three through chapter two verse four when we look at part two of Paul’s explanation of his travel plans. I pray that you are able to join us as we go through the bible, line by line and precept by precept.

God bless and I pray this was a blessing and please feel free to like, share or comment on here or whatever social media platforms you use as the Lord leads you to, as always I love questions about this or any other article so please feel free to fill in the form below, all comments are moderated to avoid profanity. TTE TGBTG SDG